Friends
by ryuuniji
Summary: Chapter 2 Up! The Battousai of modern time has been killing people mercilessly, leaving no evidence or witness. The Police told public to stay alert though his targets were not ordinary citizen. Now they need to uncover a yakuza who is after the young generation and likely related to all those murders. (High School. Title may change.)
1. Prologue

**Friends**

* * *

**A/N**: Title may change. Ratting may go up.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Rurouni Kenshin isn't my property but this fanfiction surely is. :)

* * *

**Chapter 1  
**

**...  
**

**Prologue**

…

Kaoru and Misao were biking back to their apartment after finishing their detention classes. It was evening and getting late. The weather was quite chilli. It felt like as if the snow will start to fall. Kaoru was getting worried. Not for the cold weather. But what she heard few days back. She was told that someone was claiming himself as Battousai of modern time and killing people using a katana. No one knows how he looks. There were no description. He actually never left any witnesses, no matter who it was. She wondered how people knew that the murders were committed by him if there were no witnesses.

Then she thought it wasn't really a good idea to stay out at this hour and if they have to, like they were right now, they should ask someone stronger and braver to be there with them so that they don't lose their courage or get themselves into trouble.

"Misao-chan, can you ask Aoshi-san to wait for us next time if we ever get a detention class again?" Kaoru asked her friend while biking by her side.

"You want me to tell him that we've got detentions?" Misao smirked. "No way. Even if I have to stay all night for detention classes, I'll never tell him that."

"Don't forget that we've got this detention because of you." Kaoru tried to remind her friend.

"Because of me!?" Misao was surprise. "Who got us late this morning?"

"I'm sorry for being late. But did you have to argue with Saito-sensei?"

"He was blaming me for being late where it was you who made us late."

"I did clear that up at once, and I was the one who was given detention. Why did you bothered to stay with me. You could just go home."

"Oh I see. That's the reason you want me to tell Aoshi-sama to drop you home. I guess you are just looking for a chance to be with him alone. Right?"

"Misao-chan! I didn't mean that. I know you love him and he loves you. I'll never try to come in between you two."

"You're just looking for a perfect opportunity. Isn't it?"

It sounded really rude to Kaoru. She sighed and decided not to answer back as it will eventually turn into ugly argument. She felt really upset. Of course she loves Aoshi. But there was no way she ever going to betray her best friend. She would never dream to take him away from her. Misao is more than a best friend to her. She's like a sister she never had. It's been two long years since they became friends. It's been two long years since she met Misao and Aoshi. They are two wonderful people. Two wonderful friends. So, she loves them dearly. But Misao is a bit too overprotective of her love. And so she often makes remarks such as the one she made just now. Misao knew Aoshi since she was a little girl. She probably knows him more than he knows himself. Kaoru wished she also knew him like that.

She suddenly felt jealous of Misao.

She didn't realize when she started to cry. She realized it only when she felt wetness on her cheeks. She wiped her face quickly and tried to hold back her tears. She didn't look at Misao. She decided not to let her friend see her tears. So, she paddled little faster to create a distance between them.

As she left Misao behind, she remembered why she was asking about Aoshi. The weather suddenly felt chillier. She was freezing. She was freezing not only because of cold wind but also because of fear. She found it difficult to ride the bike. She wanted to tell Misao her reasons for asking about Aoshi and also ask her if she had any idea about that murderer. So she turned her head first left and then right to look both sides and then her behind. She found herself riding alone. Misao was no longer with her. She was all alone in a foggy and too quiet street. _That's strange!_ She thought. _I've always avoided this street. How did I end up here? Where's Misao-chan?_

"MISAO-CHAN" She called up her best friend in a loud voice.

There was no respond. Only her voice was echoing everywhere and coming back to her.

"Come on Misao-chan. This is no time to play hide and seek. We are getting late."

Kaoru had a bad feeling. She knew Misao wasn't anywhere near her, but she still wanted to push away the chilling fear building inside her. She wanted to believe that Misao was there and she was just hiding somewhere in the dark street to play a prank. But when she realized that only her positive thinking won't bring Misao in front of her just like that, she decided to turn back to school, and as she turned her bike the entrance she thought she used to come to this street looked different. She thought there were a playground on one side of the street and a Japanese garden pond on other side of the street. But this time she saw some abandoned apartment buildings on both sides.

"Wait a minute. Did I take turn to a completely unknown street? No wonder why Misao-chan isn't responding. I should give her a call instead." She was talking to herself.

She reached to her blazer's right pocket and then left and found both were empty. She opened her school bag to look for it but it wasn't there either. Then she remembered. She gave it to Diagoro because he wanted to make a call to someone but he didn't return it and she also forgot to take it back.

"Damn it! I totally forgot to ask Diagoro-kun to give it back. Now what should I do?"

Kaoru didn't want to panic at that moment as she knew she needed to stay calm to find her way back to home or school by herself.

"It's okay. It'll be okay. I need to stay calm and focus. I can go to home or back to school by myself. If other kids can, so can I. I can do it." Saying that she took a long breath and was about to start paddling her bike but it was one of those unlucky days for her. The chain of her bike got loose.

"Oh! kami-sama, why do all the bad things have to happen all together?" She sighed. "First, we were late. Then Misao-chan suddenly disappeared, then I lost my way to home, then I found out that I forgot my cell phone and NOW, this stupid bike is betraying me!" She gasped. "What should I do? What should I do? I can't see anyone near here." She was talking to herself and looked around. It was frustrating.

"It's okay. I'll be okay." She took a long breath and exhale slowly. "Just relax. It's not a big deal. You can fix this chain by yourself. You don't need anyone's help." She got off from the bike and set-down on the ground to fix the chain. But it was complicated. The chain was refusing to stay back to its proper position. A chilling wind blew and so she shivered. She looked up at the sky and saw bunches of black clouds floating in the sky in front of a full-moon. Because of the clouds, the moon couldn't shine. However, she still could guess the time from the position of the moon and could tell it was late but couldn't tell how much since she didn't have a wristwatch with her as she always look at the time on her cell. "Aoshi-san was right. I shouldn't have depend on the phone all the time." Yes, it's true that the phone was handier as it can be use for multipurpose but right now if she had her wristwatch along with her, she could at least be sure of time.

"Tsk. This is probably the worst day of my life. It must be past ten 'o clock by now." She just set on the ground by the side of that bike hugging her knees since she didn't know what to do to fix the chain. Then suddenly, she felt a presence of someone. So she looked around and saw a silhouette of someone. She couldn't tell if it was a man of a woman because of the long hair of the owner. She assumed it was a woman.

"Um excuse me?"

The Shadow didn't make any respond or move.

"Excuse me? Who's there?"

There was still no reply.

She stood up from her position and turned to the side of that stranger.

"Hello! I'm talking to you." She walked few steps towards the stranger and the stranger still decided to stay quiet.

"I need help. Can you help me? I need to go home but have lost my way and I also can't fix the chain of my bike. It's loose. Can you help me to fix it or just guide me the way to get out of here? I can walk if you don't know how to fix it. I just need to know the way out."

There was still no answer. She became little nervous. _Why isn't she talking? Is it really a woman or is it… no Kaoru. Cut it out. Don't think about bad stuff in a time like this. _

"I… I was with my friend and… and I think I've lost her too." She tried to let the stranger know that she was not alone. _No Kaoru. That was a bad idea. You shouldn't have told the stranger that you have lost your companion too. _"No… actually I think she's little far from me. She'll be here in any minute."

She tried to gather up her courage. So she said to herself, _No. I shouldn't worry for being alone. __I am an expert in Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. I know how to defend myself. And Misao-chan is also as good as an expert ninja fighter. No need to worry. No need to be scared. If it's really the one that I think he is, I'm sure I can defend myself. _

But her consciousness reminded her something she totally forgot. _And how will we protect ourselves only using hands if it's the bloodthirsty. We don't have any bokken. Remember?_

While she was busy talking to herself, the silhouette came out from the dark and she saw that it was a man with a long fiery red hair and a cross mark on his left cheek. His eyes were yellow. They were burning like the fires of hell. As he appeared in front of her, the black cloud and fogs disappeared and the full-moon started to shine brightly. He was wearing a blue yukata and a white hakama. He had black tabi and traditional geta on his feet. There was a sheathed katana hanging on the left side of his hip along with an empty sheath. He was staring at her holding a katana belongs to the empty sheath with his right hand in a fine grip with kote.

At once she realized that it was the Battousai everyone was talking about. In fear she started to take slow steps backwards while kept her eyes on that man and his sword. Soon the man started to walk toward her. At this her knees started to tremble. She wanted to scream for help, but no sound came out of her vocal code as her throat became dry. She could not breathe and fell down on the ground on her butt. However she managed to save herself from hitting the ground too hard and so her butt didn't feel the hardness of the ground. Nor did her hands could feel the roughness of the ground as they were cold and lost the sensation. But even in this cold air she started to sweat in fear. Her heart was beating so fast and loud that she could hear it. She tried to keep on moving backward but kept of pushing herself at the same spot on the ground. She was terrified.

_Is this the end? Is this how I'm going to die? Isn't there anyone who can save me? Misao-chan, where are you? Aoshi-san, ...help me. …I can't die like this. Yahiko is waiting for me at home. He can't take care of himself. He's only ten._ She thought as tears trailed down her face and the bloodthirsty monster finally came in front of her.

His eyes were hungry for blood. With all her afford, Kaoru mumbled Misao's name twice.

Then when she saw he was standing in front of her not even a feet away raising the sword straight up and without any words was just about to hit her with it, she gathered up her all strength and screamed, "MISAO", and then she felt like she became blind and couldn't see anything. She could feel a little warmer as her body started to shake and she heard the voice of her best friend calling her name from somewhere.

**TBC**


	2. That was just a dream

**Friends**

* * *

**A/N: **I've been working on this chapter since last December and had plan to update sometime on January or February. Since it was quite chilly, it influenced my thoughts.

Thanks to Murder-of-the-Night for reviewing. Thanks to the Duh for following. Thanks to both of you for putting this story in your favourite list. I hope you will like this chapter too. :)

* * *

…

**Chapter 2**

…

Misao rushed to her friend and shivered in cold as she stepped inside the bedroom. The room was freezing.

"Idiot!" Misao slapped her forehead and quickly closed the sliding door of the balcony adjacent to their room which was wide open. She turned on the portable heater which went off automatically after running with timer before going next to her friend's bed to wake her up.

This morning when she woke up, she stepped out to the balcony to check how much cold the air was and left the door open as it was relatively not bad. She was so unmindful that she didn't realize if she leaves the door open like this, her friend who was still sleeping might catch cold.

Her friend was shivering in cold who tossed the blanket on the floor in her sleep. She quickly covered her friend with the blanket and called her while shaking her body lightly.

"Kaoru-chan, Kaoru-chan, wake up." Misao kept on shaking her. "Wake up Kaoru-chan, it's only a dream. Wake up."

Kaoru opened her eyes and sit up while huffing. She looked around and saw she was in her apartment bed and Misao sitting next to her. She blinked twice. _"So, it was just a bad dream then?"_ She thought.

She hugged Misao. "Oh! Misao-chan, I was so scared."

"It's okay. Don't be afraid. It was only a dream." Misao pushed her back to look at her face. "Now get freshen up quickly. The breakfast is ready and I'm now preparing our bento."

"Thank you Misao-chan for being here." Kaoru smiled and unmindfully looked around the room while rubbing her both arms and wondered why she was feeling so cold.

The room has no window. It has two small ventilators and two doors.

Among the two doors, the one which suppose to make the room cold was closed and the one which was open couldn't cause the room to get this cold since it is facing the wall of a corridor which leads to the kitchen and living room and another bedroom which belongs to her brother. The opposite wall of their bedroom has two rooms which are the storeroom and the bathroom.

Kaoru took her phone from the top of her bedside table to check the time. But it was switched off. She tried to turn it on but it went off by giving signal of too low battery. She sighed. She forgot to recharge it last night before setting an alarm to wake up on time. "What's the time? Do we have enough time?" She asked her friend.

"Umm… It should be around six-twenty." Misao replied recalling the clock of the living room.

"Six-twenty! You should have waked me up earlier Misao-chan."

"I thought you woke up already."

"And I was thinking to take a shower before leaving." Kaoru sounded disappointed.

"You still have forty minutes. We'll leave at seven. Now, I'm going back to kitchen. You better not take too long if you don't want to leave with an empty stomach." saying that Misao left the room. "And don't catch cold." She shouted from the end of the corridor.

Kaoru shook her head and put her phone to recharge. Then she rushed to bathroom taking her towel and bathrobe. After brushing her teeth she turned on the shower and stepped in. As the water hit her body from head to toe, she closed her eyes in relaxation and remembered her dream.

_What a nightmare. _She thought. _Thank god. It's only a dream._ She sighed and tried not to be bothered by the dream but she still couldn't get it out of her head when she remembered the appearance of Battousai and his katana. The vision is now blurry but she couldn't forget his terrifying stares at her. She wondered why did she had such a weird dream and why Battousai wanted to kill her.

Well, this wasn't really the first time she had such nightmare. In fact, she's been having such obnoxious dreams for the past couple of days.

_"Of course." _A possible reason came in her mind._" It was probably because of the chat we had on the mysterious murders taken place within past couple of months."_ She recalled the discussion she and her friends had on the serial murder case three weeks back.

All the victims were somehow related to the police. They were sources or undercover agents of the police. It was Sanosuke who joked stupidly saying it was probably done by the Battousai of modern time. She didn't like that joke at all but he had a point. Based on the legend, the Battousai never left any witnesses. Moreover, the police still haven't arrested anyone. They also couldn't disclose any names on their suspects since the case involved a syndicate that involved with drug business. No one knows who are distributing those illegal drugs in the markets and among youngsters. The police said only one thing. That is their colleagues who were killed were investigating that drug market.

Kaoru felt sorry for not only those unfortunate agents but also their family and friends and also, the young people who are now getting addicted or involved with that drug.

_"Maybe I took the case a bit too personally. Hm... This could be the only reason."_ Then she wondered what she should do about it. _"__S__hould talk to someone about this? __But whom should I talk to? Sensei? Will he think I'm crazy?" _She wondered. _"Oh, why Kaoru do you want to embarrass yourself. It's only a dream. Just forget it." _She advised herself.

But she couldn't and so, her memory was telling her what she saw in her dream. In that dream she and Misao were late to return home as they were given detention class by their homeroom teacher Hajime Saitou who is not actually their homeroom teacher. _"Weird! Why did I thought he was my sensei?"_ He is actually a community police officer she knew back in Tokyo. She laughed at this as she thought what it would have been like if he was really her sensei. But her laughter faded away as she remembered her old home in Tokyo and her parents. It made her sad.

In her dream it felt like she lived in Tokyo but was heading for _this_ apartment which is in Kyoto. It was even weirder that she thought she's been living in Tokyo all these times and her school was in Tokyo too.

Yes. It's not like she's been living in Kyoto all her life. It's been only two years since she moved to Kyoto with her brother who is now an eleven year old kid and gets pissed off if he is called a kid or even given the reminder that he needs to be taken care of by his sister. It hurts his pride very easily since he thinks it is he who should be taking care of his sister instead. She smiled at this thought.

He is not home. He went to stay at his friend's place as they were working on a school's project. They were making a mini-robot from the concept of a mecha anime. Kaoru smiled and felt happy for her brother for finding such good friends. Diagoro is a good kid and a genius one too. He wants to become a rocket scientist one day. But her brother wants to become a police officer when he grows up, just like their father.

At this thought some tears formed in her eyes and washed away with the shower's water as it trickle down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and rubbed her eyes and face while trying to clean the tears from her face and eyes. But it took ten more minutes to pull of herself together. She turned off the shower when she could stop her sobbing and put on her bathrobe. She walked out of the bathroom while drying her hair with her towel after wiping her face.

She became upset because she remembered why she and Yahiko were living in Kyoto and their parents no longer living with them.

She remembered how one day her mom was killed in a bank robbery where she used to work as a cashier. Her dad was a police officer. He left very early in the morning that day for his duty which was patrolling the locality with his police car along with his partner. He was devastated for not being able to protect his beloved wife.

But no one knew what was going to happen that day. No one knew that there was going to be a robbery in that bank. No one knew that that was for the last time her mom had prepared breakfast for everyone. No one knew that that was for the last time her mom had prepared bento for her. No one knew the previous evening was the last evening her mom had prepared dinner for the family. No one knew. No one knew anything. The day started like every other usual day. No. Not quite usual. But like one of those lousy mornings when she woke up late and yelled at her eight year old brother for occupying the bathroom for too long. She got out of the house without having the breakfast her mom prepared for everyone with great care. The meal which she didn't have time to taste were wrapped with care and put in the refrigerator.

That was the first and the last time in her entire life she even forgot to thank her mom for the Bento she prepared for her. She learnt about the robbery and shoot-out from one of her friends during lunch-break who was surfing the net on a cell phone. She didn't want to finish her lunch or stay in the school at that very moment. So she rushed out of the school without taking permission from the teachers and ran as fast as she could to reach the bank where her mom worked.

Yes. The bank was not too far from her home. It was around sixty minutes walking distance from her home and her school was exactly opposite forty-five minutes walking distance from her home which was an apartment. She ran and ran as fast as she could. She didn't have the patience to buy a metro ticket. She forgot that she had a bike and that morning she went to school biking. She couldn't think of anything. She was crying and running. Running and crying. Then when she reached there, about an hour and fifteen minutes later, she saw the robbers already left the bank.

The policemen were stopping the onlookers from creating any unnecessary crowd. She was just watching all that wordlessly. She wanted to check out how her mom was but a policeman stopped her from crossing the yellow barricade. When she told the officer that her mom worked in that bank, the officer told her to go home and wait for her mom to return. But instead listening she yelled at him. She told him that her dad was a policeman too. But the officer still didn't let her cross the barricade.

At that time a middle aged woman who was standing among the bystanders told her to go home too and so she did. When she reached home, she called her dad on his cell phone. No. She didn't have a phone back then. She didn't need one. Her dad told her she was too young to have her own phone. He would buy her one once she becomes a senior. But that day she really wished she had a phone too like she had the key of the main door. Anyway, her dad answered her call and told her to wait for him at home. He came home to pick her to take her to the hospital where her mom was taken.

She couldn't believe herself. She didn't realize that her mom was in that ambulance. The ambulance which passed her with loud siren when she was running towards the bank which was still at least sixty minutes away from her. She blamed herself for not paying attention. If she had paid attention, she could sit beside her mom in that ambulance and reach to the hospital with her. Then her mom would not feel lonely knowing that her daughter or a family member was there besides her.

She still does not understand it. Why? Why out of so many people on street and in the bank, her mom was the only one to get the shot. Why her?

When she reached into the hospital, she found her little brother was already there waiting in the waiting room outside the operation theatre along with his homeroom teacher and their dad's partner, Officer Saitou Hajime who went to school to get them but her friends informed her teacher that she already left school when she heard the news. Her dad didn't scold her for her action. He could understand. She was worried.

The robbers shot her mom because she pushed the alert button under her desk to inform the police that there were robbers. By shooting her they made it clear to everyone inside the bank that they were serious and would not be sorry to shoot others too. And so, they loot as much as possible in five minutes after the shooting and left the bank.

Three months later her dad was killed in crossfire where the police were raiding the hideout of those robbers.

At that time she was fourteen. It's been three years since there both parents were killed in the same year.

By now Kaoru finished drying her hair but was sitting on her bed, looking at the ground and trying not to cry again. She shook her head to clear her mind and took deep breath few times and released slowly to relax her mind. She needed to talk to someone about her nightmares. But she didn't know with whom she should share it. People might just laugh at her. She sighed. She wished she could talk about this with Aoshi-san who always speaks and gives advises logically.

Almost twenty minutes later she went to the kitchen taking her school bag after combing her hair and putting on her uniform.

"You have ten minutes in hand." Misao reminded Kaoru who already had her breakfast and finished preparing their bento.

Breakfast was milk and cornflakes. Yes. That's what she had as well for breakfast. For which she had enough time to prepare "delicious" bento.

"I know Misao-chan and I'm sorry for being late. What did you prepare for lunch?"

"Spaghetti with meatball." said Misao with prideful smile but stopped smiling as she noticed Kaoru's puffy eyes. "What happen to your eyes? Were you crying?"

"No." Kaory lied and gave her friend a smile. "Some shampoo went inside when I was washing my hair."

"Try to be careful next time. You look like you've been crying your eyes out."

"Really?"

"Really. I just hope this redness will go away by the time we reach to school."

"I hope so too."

After breakfast both friends left their apartment for their school.

Kaoru forgot her cell phone and Misao forgot her homework.

* * *

TBC


End file.
